A federal judge ripped apart lawyers for a group of inspectors general fired by President Donald Trump during an emergency hearing Friday where she threatened the attorneys with sanctions if they did not withdraw their emergency motion, according to reports.
The hearing in U.S. District Judge Anna C. Reyes’ courtroom was scheduled over the last 48 hours after eight of the 17 watchdogs fired during Trump’s first week in office filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming their dismissals came without Congress receiving the required 30-day advance notice.
Politico's legal reporter Kyle Cheney wrote Friday that Reyes, a Biden appointee, “absolutely tore” into the group’s lawyers for waiting 21 days to file suit – and then demanding “emergency same-day relief.”
“Reyes was livid that the lawyers for the IGs compared their case to the recently decided case of fired ethics watchdog Hampton Dellinger,” Cheney said Friday. “She pointed out why those cases are nothing alike and wondered why the IGs would even try to compare them.”
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The judge’s takedown convinced the IGs to withdraw their motion for a temporary restraining order. They agreed instead to an expedited briefing schedule, Cheney reported.
He added that the judge told attorneys that a "five-minute phone call" could’ve taken care of that without forcing all parties to rush to the courthouse on a temporary restraining order hearing where they demanded same-day relief.
The firings last month caused immediate outrage among Democrats on Capitol Hill and in legal circles across the country. Former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers called the move “a huge disaster,” and said at the time that IGs are “apolitical” watchdogs of the executive branch whose job it is to “search for fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.”
President Joe Biden nominated Reyes to the federal bench in 2022.
